Confession time: I put off watching Demon Slayer until maybe three weeks ago because it's rated R on MAL and the last time I watched something rated R on MAL was ReZero and I couldn't sleep for days after. And because I love myself and didn't want to not be able to sleep again I refrained. I was pretty adamant about not watching it, but I was eventually persuaded because my housemates said they would watch it with me.
{Spoilers, but so many memes are out there you've probably seen the equivalent of the anime}
For the first couple of episodes, my housemates would say "warning" before any blood showed up. And for the first half of the season I was super disturbed. But I figured that you know I'm 20 years old now so I should be able to handle it now. I'm a strong independent woman and I can for sure watch gore and demons no big deallll. And even though I watched the entirety of this season, I can't say that I could handle anything more gore-y. Already this was kind of hard to watch at some points. *wheeze*
So, as we all probably know at this point, the concept of Demon Slayer is that there's this boy named Tanjiro who's really hardworking and wholesome. One day he goes to town to sell firewood to provide for his family and comes home to his whole family slaughtered and his sister Nezuko who "survived" but is now a demon. RIP the most cute checkered family :(
With a crazed Nezuko in tow, Tanjiro runs into Giyu who's the first demon slayer he's encountered. Because apparently in this world, demons aren't commonly encountered and most people don't even know about their existence. With Giyu trying to kill the only surviving member of Tanjiro's family, Tanjiro stands up against him to protect her and earns Giyu's respect I guess? So then off Tanjiro and Nezuko go to Urokodaki's house for Tanjiro to train to be a demon slayer. All the while Tanjiro's training for the Final Selection where he would go, as the name would suggest, to the final trial for him to become an official demon slayer to avenge his family.
The arc with Urokodaki and all of the children that he trained to go to the Final Selection that died was a really well-emotionally developed story line. It showed the anguish and difficulty people that want to become demon slayers must take and how it's not without risk. And I think that even though the demons are so ugly, they juxtapose the demon slayers so well in making their feats even more impressive. (LOL if this sounds terrible it's because I'm exhausted and my apartmentmates are playing MarioKart behind me)
One of the charms of Demon Slayer is how well-developed all of the characters are. Even though Tanjiro could come off as "holier than thou" because he's so wholesome and genuinely compassionate towards everyone around him, it wasn't ever annoying or overbearing. This is probably because the man's work ethic is actually insane. And the way that he cares for Nezuko is really amazing like he just carries her in the wooden box on his back for miles and miles even when he's injured.
Because the season is 26 episodes, I kinda feel reluctant to go through each of the arcs. But they linked nicely together with only a few filler episodes in between that felt more like a welcome reprieve for our heroes to rest up while they trained for the next battle instead of a complete waste of time. And every time they were in the middle of an arc and the episodes would end it would be almost a given that there was a cliffhanger. That's one of the reasons I was happy to binge the show because the cliffhangers weren't too bad on my part. Especially during the spider arc that went on for what seemed like forever, it was handy that all of the episodes were out by the time I started watching.
As I finish up the season, V has actually just started it (honestly one of the only times in this day and age that I'll have watched a show before him) and he says that the first two episodes outline a plot very similar to Jojo. Personally I haven't watched Jojo, but even so, this is amazing.
Especially the final fight with one of the Lower 12 when it was Tanjiro and Nezuko against Rui, visually the whole fight sequence was amazing. In general, the way that they animated the show was so engaging and beautiful, it was hard to tear your eyes away from the screen.
As all shounen hero anime go, a lot of this show was about personal growth and development to defeat the bad guy. However, it was so interesting to watch with all of the interesting and unique characters like Inosuke with his pig head and Zenitsu with his awesome lightning power but cowardly nature. And the Hashima! They're so cool! Everyone is honestly so cool in this show because of their power/specialty. So no I didn't get bored with the endless cycle of personal growth, probably because Tanjiro is so hardworking and the gore kept me on my toes.
Overall, I think this was the most hyped anime of the season and it was well-deserved. It also has this season's best girl, cutie Nezuko who really stole the show. But just the way that they would animate the characters with vacant eyes were super cute as well hehe. And Kanao!! Such a cutie!! It was a good balance of cool powers and fight sequences, scary gore scenes, and engaging characters.
It was refreshing to watch. It's been a long time since I thoroughly enjoyed a show and couldn't put it down this way. It reminded me once again of why I fell in love with and started watching copious amounts of anime in the first place.
Honestly I'm kind of disappointed in how unable I've become in conveying how amazing this show was and I should've allowed myself more time to just soak in how impactful the show was, but alas I just jumped in headfirst. So, just know that even if my review is quite brief and all over the place, I genuinely enjoyed watching Demon Slayer. It was especially cute to watch it together with my housemates hehe.
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